Andrew Snyder

Canberra: Meet Your Neighbours exhibition at the Rock Garden section of the Australian National Botanic Gardens

by Dave Wong, Canberra, Australia:

I feel very privileged to have some of my work, including Meet Your Neighbours images on display at two great locations in Canberra in the coming weeks and months.

Yesterday, with the great help of Megan, Dan and other staff from the Australian National Botanic Gardens, we installed Meet Your Neighbours images in the Rock Garden section of the Gardens. The images will be installed between the 3rd and 12th of March and will be lit up during the Luminous Botanicus II: Night Moods events that will be held at the Gardens for the next two Friday and Saturday nights. This event is part of the Enlighten festival.

Variety: a tiny fraction of the species that can be found in the grasslands, woodlands and forests around Canberra.

It is great to have these images finally installed in an outdoor location (as was the original intention – inspired by Clay Bolt’s outdoor exhibit at the Highlands Botanical Garden – North Carolina). The ANBG is a perfect location for the exhibition as it is it set within Black Mountain, the place where I many of the species featured in the exhibition were photographed.

Field Studio setup used to photograph animals and plants at Black Mountain, Canberra

I am really looking forward to seeing how the images look throughout the two weeks and how people interact with them. I am especially curious to see how they will look at the Enlighten event. Apparently there will even be a Shakuhachi master playing in the rock garden! A big thanks to all the staff of the ANBG who contributed in various ways to the exhibition organisation or installation of the exhibition including Jennifer Salkeld and Steve Speer and Dan. Particular thanks go to Megan Donaldson who handled much of the organisation and logistics behind the exhibition and came up with the concept of holding the exhibition in the Rock Garden as part of Enlighten.

Images installed in the Rock Garden of the Australian National Botanic Gardens

Speaking of Enlighten, I think there would also be great potential for Meet Your Neighbours images to work as projected images onto buildings or screens in public places.

Another group show that will feature some of my work, including Meet Your Neighbours images, is Bush Capital: The Natural History of the ACT which opens on the 11th of March and runs until the 26th of June. I am really interested to see the show as it shows the variety of ways in which we can view the local ecosystems and species through artistic works, specimens, video and audio. There is also a great public program that accompanies the show. Many thanks to Rowan Henderson and Ian Fraser who co-curated the show and invited me to include work.

I hope that both of these shows will help to spark people’s interest in diversity of nature that is always nearby, particularly in the ‘Bush Capital’.

By Andrew Snyder, Mississippi, USA: Of the states in the southeastern United States, Mississippi isn’t generally the first to come to mind as being a hotbed of biodiversity, and in comparison to the others, it isn’t. However, the Magnolia State does harbor a substantial variety of species, especially ones small enough to fit on a sheet of acrylic or in a light box.

I first arrived in Oxford, Mississippi in 2011, when I started graduate school at the University of Mississippi in the northern section of the state. When not conducting research in Guyana (where most of my Meet Your Neighbours images have been captured), I have made an effort to get out and explore the new territories and habitats around here, and have subsequently been capturing images for MYN since joining in 2013.

Mississippi boasts many different habitats, from forests, to swamps, to coastal estuaries. However, all of the images that accompany this post were made within an hour’s drive outside of Oxford in north-central Mississippi. In fact, I have three favorite locations (so far) for capturing MYN images in this state.

Within a fifteen minute drive outside of Oxford is a wildlife refuge that supports hardwood forest, swamps, creeks, and a sizeable lake. This location is chock full of cottonmouths and other snakes, tree frogs, and a variety of fish. While taking part in a herpetology course that was offered at the University, I spent a lot of time here and also made some subsequent images during later trips.

Tishomingo State Park in northeast Mississippi is a special place. This park contains arguably the most topographical complexity within the whole state and is home to a variety of salamanders that aren’t found anywhere else in the state. Fellow MYN photographer J.P. Lawrence and spent a few days one weekend this spring on a bit of a blitz here, knocking of some of the states Endangered species, and then some.

A composite of a variety of the reptiles and amphibians found at various locations in Mississippi this past spring.

My third favorite location, and one that should relate to many of our photographers, is my own backyard. It should also be noted that I have only a few bushes out front and zero trees, but despite a dearth of quality habitat, I (or sometimes the dog) still routinely find new species to photograph. From mantids to beetles to moles, the point is, there are always cool creatures to be found as long as you start to look!

An Eastern mole (Scalopus aquaticus), photographed courtesy of my dog. Don’t worry, it was released unharmed. My finger on the otherhand, was not.A caterpillar hunter (Calosoma sayi) found on my front porch.

As a parting note to this short post, and as an eventual parting “gift” of our legacy at Ole Miss, J.P. Lawrence and I donated a variety of our MYN images to be used on a fancy new Biology Department tent. Hopefully these images, seen by the thousands of students and alums that flock to Oxford for every football tailgate, inspire the future generations of Ole Miss students to study biology here.

Beginning in the 1980s, emerging pathogens have contributed to a global decline in amphibian populations. As a result of disease and other factors, amphibians are the most imperiled terrestrial vertebrate class on Earth. With both ranavirus (a genus of viruses in the family Iridoviridae) and chytrid fungus (a fungus in the phylum Chytridiomycota) being two of the biggest culprits, biologists and veterinarians are investigating the prevalence and transmission of these pathogens in amphibian populations all over the world.

In the Southern Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, researchers from the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture in Knoxville have been studying ranavirus and chytrid fungus prevalence for the last decade in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Known as the ‘Salamander Capital of the World’, this relatively small area contains some thirty species of salamanders, several of which are endemic to the park itself. This makes amphibian research in the Southern Appalachians vital when attempting to understand the global significance of certain pathogens like ranavirus and chytrid fungus, which in general, remain understudied.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, vast swathes of the Smoky Mountains had been logged. Many native species, including amphibians, were decimated as a result. After being decreed a National Park in 1934, the Smokies made an extraordinary recovery and are once again intact and forested with large, mature trees. This has given Southern Appalachian salamanders a second chance at survival. With the help of dedicated scientists and concerned citizens, salamanders in Tennessee and North Carolina are fighting to avoid what has been called the Sixth Mass Extinction.

-By Karine Aigner, Washington DC, USA: I was in Brownsville, Texas, having a nightmare of a time trying to photograph a 3 day old Texas tortoise that we had found. I had pretty much given up on the cheeky juvenile reptile when I heard something moving at my feet. Strategically placed right at my foot was a cockroach the size of my thumb, seemingly pulling a scorpion. But, the scorpion was attached to the roach’s backside, holding on! The cockroach was having some success at pulling itself across the floor until the scorpion, almost half the roach’s size, turned itself sideways (with me watching) while holding onto the roach, and without further ado slammed it’s tail into the roach four distinct times. Not a minute later was the roach sedated, but not yet dead. So, what did i do? Throw them both onto the plexi and watch the scene play out. The scorpion waited till the roach stopped moving, then moved itself into position to start eating the roach head first. It later turned it over and continued eating.

Round 1: The scorpion’s first attempt to subdue its prey.The scorpion, after killing the much larger roach, begins feeding head first.

-By Todd Amacker, Tennessee, USA: I recently returned from a trip to rural Gaza Province, Mozambique, near Banhine National Park. Banhine is what people refer to as a ‘paper park’. Very little infrastructure, relatively few park rangers, and only small, skittish populations of megafauna. They certainly have reason to be skittish, after their animal kin were decimated during a brutal civil war that lasted for decades. The majority of locals living in the region rely on subsistence agriculture, which means that if their humble crops (mostly maize) fail, they go hungry. That’s why, in 2011, after moving back to the States from Africa, I founded MozCause. We’re revitalizing a small primary school in the village of Mafacitela, just outside of Banhine National Park. Such projects in this area are easier said than done. As an example, the cost and risk of transporting cinder blocks for a ten hour journey down a less-than-perfect dirt road was not on option, so we were left with one choice: to make our own cinder blocks on-site using river sand from the Changane River. But, by using local labor and limited building materials, we, along with the help of Búfalo Moçambique, a privately owned and operated wildlife reserve, replaced the school’s long-missing roof that until now has rendered the original school building useless. Small things like this make a world of difference to these undeniably resilient children of Mafacitela.

Students at Escola Primaria de Mafacitela, in rural Gaza Province, Mozambique, are supported by MozCause, a small NGO founded in 2011.

In between my visits to the school, where I was documenting our progress and chatting with the school’s headmaster, Gervásio Inácio Bambo, I spent my time at a bush camp at Búfalo Moçambique. Despite being the middle of the dry season, I was astonished by the amount of biodiversity found at the reserve, and elsewhere. Famed biologist E.O. Wilson describes insects and other invertebrates as being “the small things that run the world”. After a few hours spent looking for critters in this corner of Gaza Province, it’s no surprise that the world is still running relatively smoothly. There was no shortage of grasshoppers, katydids, praying mantids, spiders, frogs, and other small, fascinating creatures. In fact, my enthusiasm for these little things became contagious. Soon, every other person in camp was searching for photography subjects. The camp assistants, mostly local Mozambicans, proved to be the most effective critter getters.

At our bush camp near Banhine National Park, Mozambique, I enlisted the help of a camp assistant, James, to help me find a way to attract frogs at night. This is the result: a basket made from an ilala palm frond.A collection of frogs that we captured using the ‘ilala basket method’ at Búfalo Moçambique, a private game reserve near Banhine National Park, Mozambique.

I frequently scoured Ilala palms (Hyphaene coriacea) for frogs, as it seemed to be their favorite hiding place. But James, who I referred to as a ‘closet naturalist’, quickly showed me a short cut for attracting them using the same type of palm (above). Other camp workers brought me myriad grasshoppers of all shapes, sizes, and colors (below), and they even brought me a thick-tailed scorpion! This species is capable of spraying venom from its tail, so one must be careful when handling. Praying mantids from the genus Hoplocorypha also made for interesting finds. I can’t wait to return during the wet season (that is, if the maze of dirt roads leading to Búfalo Moçambique allows it.)

A praying mantid (Hoplocorypha sp.) next to the same type of ootheca (egg mass) from whence it emerged.A tiny (but dangerous) scorpion that we found beneath a cinder block at night. Its danger is revealed by its thick tail and relatively puny pincers.

-By Lech Naumovich, California, USA: When you step foot atop Twin Peaks in San Francisco, you imbibe sweeping views of a thriving metropolis nestled in nature. There are vast swaths of gray hugged by adjacent seas of green and blue. It’s not Brooks Range-esque wilderness, but as Bill Cronon professes, “what brought each of us to the places where such memories became possible is entirely a cultural invention.” Although I don’t always completely agree with Professor Cronon’s view of a necessarily anthropogenic wilderness – San Francisco undoubtedly stands as living proof that cultural intervention has allowed for these memories to be accessible (my interpretation) to the masses, not the few private property owners. Cultural intervention has also preserved a taste of wilderness, and the home of this unlikely resident of Twin Peaks, the Mission Blue Butterfly. MBB’s fly from about April to May, each year, a reminder of how delicate biodiversity can be, while at the same time celebrating the incredible resiliency of this tiny, ephemeral butterfly.

A Mission Blue (Aricia icarioides missionensis) in the Twin Peaks area near San Francisco.

I’ve been blessed to work with a great group of agencies and volunteers on the restoration of habitat of the Mission Blue butterfly. With a regular commitment to this site, we can help preserve this population for many generations. Please read more at www.goldenhour.org.